Quote:
Originally Posted by John Smith
Well. I'm pretty sure that the Norman knights were the first to use couched lances in a battle in 1066 (which made "big guy with big axe" heavy infantry useless), and by 1100 everyone was fighting like that, hence the cutoff date. It was a couched lance charge (once the Saxons'formations were broken) that routed Harold Godwinson's army at Hastings.
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Ah, interesting. I wonder what the motivation was for their depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry, then (though I do see one fellow who might be couching that spear).